The process of drilling and completing a well is expensive and potentially unprofitable. Drilling components are subject to breakage or wearing out due to the harsh drilling environment. When drilling component failures occur, the drilling process is delayed as the entire drill string has to be removed to replace drilling components. Further, it may be necessary to fish out any mechanical parts left in the borehole that would interfere with drilling. With or without the occurrence of drilling component failures, the overall borehole trajectory of a completed drilling project may result in sub-optimal production. Perhaps only one out of six wells drilled can ever produce enough petroleum to recover costs and offer a profit. Even then, that one well must be completed properly, and completion costs are high. A bad completion can ruin a well, even if the overall borehole trajectory were to be optimal.
Many techniques have been developed to expedite drilling, to improve borehole trajectories, and to reduce completion costs. Some of these techniques involve collecting downhole data while drilling to prevent or quickly detect drilling anomalies. Other techniques involve steering the drill bit based on real-time downhole data so that the drill bit stays within a particular formation layer. Still other techniques involve logging downhole data during and/or after drilling to determine formation properties that affect how best to complete a well.
It should be understood, however, that the specific embodiments given in the drawings and detailed description do not limit the disclosure. On the contrary, they provide the foundation for one of ordinary skill to discern the alternative forms, equivalents, and modifications that are encompassed together with one or more of the given embodiments in the scope of the appended claims.